Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a common and often fatal stroke subtype. If the patient survives the ictus, the resulting hematoma within the brain parenchyma triggers a series of events leading to secondary insults and severe neurological deficits. Clot lysis plays an important role in the secondary brain injury following ICH. It is the long-term goal of our laboratory to identify the mechanisms involved in brain damage following ICH. After an ICH, lysis of erythrocytes in the hematoma results in brain edema formation, neuronal death and neurological deficits. Our previous studies demonstrated that the release of hemoglobin and its degradation products including iron from erythrocytes are involved in brain injury following ICH. Recent studies found that enhancing microglia/macrophage-mediated hematoma clearance improves functional outcome after ICH, and CD47 has an important role in erythrophagocytosis. Our preliminary studies have showed that erythrophagocytosis occurs in the brain after ICH and erythrocytes express CD47. In this application, we propose to test the following specific aims: 1) To determine whether CD-47 mediates hematoma clearance; and 2) To determine whether enhanced clot clearance reduces ICH-induced brain injury and improves behavioral outcome following ICH. We believe that the pilot studies proposed here should form a strong basis for a NIH R01 application. The long-term goal of our studies is to limit brain damage following ICH.